Aertsen, Pieter

Cook in front of the Stove

Firmly positioned in front of the imposing chimney-piece, the cook
stands surrounded by the food she is preparing to cook: voluminous
cabbages in a basket, and fowls and a leg of meat skewered on a spit
which she holds firmly in one hand, whilst with the other she grabs a
skimming ladle. The sculptural silhouette with its powerful arms, its
solid body and vigorously modelled face radiates a strong sense of
assurance. The fact that she is looking towards the unseen part of the
room suggests that something is going on there that the viewer is
unable to see. Pieter Aertsen made use several times of this form of
composition in which a single, solidly-built figure occupies the
entire panel in a vertical which accentuates his or her
solidity. This is an invention by the artist, which although
originating in the foregrounds of the works of Jan van Hemessen, has
no real precedent in the Antwerp painting of the period.

Even though he never painted a picture not containing a human figure,
Pieter Aertsen played an essential role in the emergence of the
still-life by granting a dominating place to objects and to victuals,
which he represents in all their triviality. Whilst every element
appears to have been observed with attention to real-life detail, the
image has nonetheless been recomposed in the studio. What cook would
place small fowls and a heavy leg of lamb on the same spit? We also
find the same kitchen utensils, furniture and victuals, differently
interlinked, in many of the artist's compositions. Whilst the
household objects are drawn from life, the classical lines of the
chimney are taken from the architectural treaty of the Italian
Sebastiano Serlio, whom Aertsen would have known from the Antwerp
edition of his works in 1549.

The total absence of religious subject matter, which still underlay
all genre scenes at the time, is another stroke of daring by the
painter, even if 16th century viewers would have immediately
recognised, in the cook, the Martha of the gospel narrative, who is
busy preparing the meal whilst her sister Mary is listening to
Christ's words. This image also has a moralising content and should be
read as a warning against the dangers of the pleasures of the flesh,
"voluptas carnis".